Churches of the New Testament, by Ethan Longhenry, discusses each local church that is talked about in the New Testament – the history & geography of the city, background of the church in that location (their founding and the challenges they faced), instructions and rebukes to these churches as recorded in the New Testament, as well as what happened to these churches after the time that we read of them in Scripture.
The book then goes on to discuss the application for us today. Learning from the examples of these churches, we see what God approves and what He condemns. Longhenry spends one chapter talking about the New Testament Church, representing this as the ideal we are to strive for as we consider the sum of the instructions to the various churches of the New Testament.
I found the author’s approach to discussing the New Testament Church interesting. Many brethren approach the subject in a similar way to Roy Cogdill in his material on the New Testament Church – systematically showing how Christ’s church is different than the denominations of men, outlining the church’s origin, work, organization, worship, etc. Longhenry does spend some time discussing denominationalism towards the end of the book, but the primary focus is in the lessons we can learn from the individual congregations.
This is not a criticism of this book, merely an observation about the difference in perspectives. Longhenry set out to provide information about each of the churches of the New Testament, so we can learn from their faithfulness, as well as their shortcomings. This book is very good at providing that information. The brief summary at the end about what God approves and condemns, and comments about the New Testament Church provide a good conclusion to the study about the various congregations.
Overall, I would recommend this book. The information contained in it about the various churches can certainly help you in your study and understanding of the word of God.
This book is available at Amazon.com – Churches of the New Testament (affiliate link)
